Insightful Musings on the Scripturesby
Ray Sparre, NU class of '67
Ray has a wealth of experience as a Husband, Father, Pastor, Missionary, and student of the Word. He believes and practices his faith where the rubber meets the road. You'll find his writings to be practical, insightful, and grounded in a truly Christ-centered world view.
Below are links to a printable daily Bible reading guide which Ray has followed, and an archive of all his daily devotional writings for 2010 and 2011.
| Daily Reading Guide | 2011 Devotion Archives | 2010 Devotion Archives |
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1 April 11
Dear special ones.
I did another round of logging today that was pretty intense right up till dark…about 7:30pm. I still have my skid steer over at Camp Adams so need to load it up and haul it home in the morning.
Be good. Be a seeker. Love, Dad/Ray
1 April 2011
Proverbs 1
Focus: “How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds!” Proverbs 1:17.
Here is what I believe to be the implied thesis being presented in this statement, along with the two following verses: THE NATURAL SIN NATURE CAUSES MANY PEOPLE TO BE DUMBER THAN BIRDS!
OK—let’s pretend you want to trap a pheasant. You see a couple nice rooster pheasants in that wheat field that was recently harvested. So you launch your plan and take your wooden box out to where they are, prop it up with a trigger stick, place some nice grain under the box that you know pheasants like to eat, tie a string onto the trigger stick, and walk away to allow the pheasants to come over to eat the bait grain, at which time you pull the string and catch one of those dumb birds. But alas!—it looks like they’re not so dumb after all! The fact is they took to flight as soon as you approached the edge of the field!
Birds have not been equipped by the Creator with intellectual abilities of objective reasoning. But they are smart enough to know when danger is right in front of them. Do you see the point being made here? Humans, on the other hand, even though they have been gifted by the Creator with intelligence, are afflicted with BUILT-IN STUPID when it comes to using their God-given intelligence to think through the important issues of life and death and eternity. Here they are in a world that God made, given life that God made, in a body God made, eating food God made, breathing air God made, yet comfortable and even arrogant about violating laws that God made by being deceitful and pursuing ILL-GOTTEN GAIN—ignoring the dangers of doing life and facing eternity without God—without consulting or seeking Him. This is a recipe for certain self-made disaster—they shoot themselves in the foot—they are caught in their own net—they become victims of their victimizing!
Let’s take a moment to review this 3-verse capsule of thought: “How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds! These men lie in wait for their own blood; they waylay only themselves! Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it” (Proverbs 1:17-19).
I guess I have become very biased in my “old age”—I see absolutely NO safe and viable alternative to SEEKING FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! Of course, He already knew that all along—that’s why He said it.
“As soon as there is life there is danger.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson